Top 10 (Or just the best few) Games of the Year.

[Bolivar]

Hahaha, who's the jerk who offered to buy it? Are you talking about Khedrin Gonzalez?

I understand why it would be pretty crappy, but Illfonic is a small company and purchasing an existing IP for your first serious project is kind of a safe and good way to go. As far as promises back to the community, that's kind of dumb, they shouldn't have done anything like that which they couldn't back up.

Maybe I'll check out Xonotic.

[Shoeberto]

Hahaha, who's the jerk who offered to buy it? Are you talking about Khedrin Gonzalez?

I understand why it would be pretty crappy, but Illfonic is a small company and purchasing an existing IP for your first serious project is kind of a safe and good way to go. As far as promises back to the community, that's kind of dumb, they shouldn't have done anything like that which they couldn't back up.

Maybe I'll check out Xonotic.

Yeah that was his name. He didn't interact very well with the community and that's the crux of the whole problem. It wouldn't have been as big of a deal had there been more interaction, but Illfonic just swooped in, announced This Is Happening, made some vague promises to make good with the community that they never fleshed out, and then disappeared until the game came out having almost nothing to do with the brand that the community originally put together aside from the name and being an arena shooter. A lot of people put a lot of time into it as a hobby with iirc no real acknowledgment for their effort for the 6ish years that Nexuiz was developed as an open source project. It was a really crap deal, though I think the fork reinvigorated the community a lot.

[Balzac]

Dishonored - This game is so good oh my god, there is SO MUCH to love here. The design, the tools you can use, the different ways you can approach things, it's great.

Shame the ending was slack as smurf But yes it was a beautiful game non the less.

My list is:

Dishonored
Borderlands 2
Far Cry 3
ZombiU

Uh, I guess that's it.

[Wolf Kanno]

I only played four 2012 games this year. Been mainly playing my backlof for the rest. It was also a largely slow year for me, not much held my interest and I don't play as many of the big name franchises like I used to (though I did get the Uncharted Trilogy for Christmas) so here are my four games.

4. Persona 4 Arena - Wasn't surprised this was good, I mean I love Atlus and Arksys is pretty solid. I feel the game works well with a really nice story mode, and the gameplay is excellent because Arksys finally tried to make a fighting game with a newbie player in mind since RPGs are apparently not played by the action gamer crowd. It works really well, being very user-friendly, and not have the reverse counter ultra roman cancel parry moves that make the genre unapproachable by anyone who isn't tournament grade. I wasn't wild about Labrys when she was first announced for the game, but now I feel she's one of the best elements of the game and I like how the story opens up some options for what Persona 5's story may be about.

3. Assassin's Creed 3 - Fixed some of my issues with the series, and genuinely was a fun experimental game that tried to shake up the formula a little bit with mixed results. Conner is not going to dethrone Ezio as the spokesman for the franchise but he was a good character none the less. I like how the game cleverly allowed you to finally get some insight into the villains and make hunting down the Templars a more personal experience for the player. I also love how the story returned to the moral gray of AC1 and Revelations, with the Templars appearing as decent people again as opposed to the absolute monsters that Ezio fought in Italy. Likewise, I enjoy that the game makes you the player question whether you're own actions as Conner were actually good, as it seems like the Assassin's caused as much issues as the Templars did. The new ship system was excellently implemented and one of the most fun new features. The new Assassin's Tombs sections were also pretty awesome as well and tried to keep the cinematic presentation that AC Revelations gave them. The game also opened with an awesome twist right from the beginning and never has a trophy/Achievement title ever been so accurate as "How do you like them apples?". On the flip side, the game had issues with story pacing, which ultimately lead to taking longer to like Conner and some of the characters because the game loved to jump around time to the big events as well as resolve certain story elements off screen which really irked me to no end. Conner could have surpassed Ezio had the game delved into his past more and actually showed us things. The game is also buggy as all hell, and I'm not talking about the silly bugs that cause some funny effects with character models, I'm talking about bugs that make completing the game sometimes impossible like in one of the time limit missions, I had a door I had to use to exit and complete the mission and the game wouldn't register it, or the infamous final mission of the Captain Kidd side missions which wouldn't register some of the puzzle elements for no good reason. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the game, and even after everything was done, I found myself wanting more which is why this is ranked higher than P4 Arena.

2. The Last Story - So I'm cheating a bit, I haven't actually finished this game but I feel I'm far enough in to make a value judgement. I really like this game, even with its numerous flaws the game has more than enough good elements to help me overlook its few problems, and most of its obvious flaws are not really deal breakers like the bugs in ACIII. I feel The Last Story is basically Sakaguchi's take on where to take the genre and while it's not going to be universally accepted, I feel he presents an interesting idea and I am totally down with a sequel that will refine these ideas. The game mixes several genres, including Action RPG, Stealth, FPS, and borrows a few RTS elements. The core idea of the battle system isn't so much the special Gathering Ability, but actually using your environment to your advantage which Gathering helps you do. If you're not using Gathering to draw opponents away from mages, or drawing them into magic circle spell traps, then you are sniping enemies with your crossbow from behind cover, having your mages blow up pillars to damage the enemy as it lands on them, or blowing up the ledges and bridges they use for footing, or you can hide behind objects and use your crossbow to draw enemy guards away and sneak attack them one by one. There are multiple ways to approach the battles and even the boss fights get special treatment because I have fought a dozen of them so far and only one of them was a typical straight up "hit me until my HP=0 boss" the rest have involved special commands (think Kingdom Hearts II's Reaction commands) or special strategies just to make them vulnerable. The gameplay is largely solid if a bit easy, the world is also really well developed and I it leaves you wanting to learn more. The cast and story have also been really good, with some really powerful scenes brought to life with Nobuo Uematsu's music. The major flaws of the game come from some poor animations spread across the game that sort of prevents you from being too immersed at times, a narrator that is useless and has awful writing for hit dialogue, as well as some really cringe worthy writing from time to time, usually when the game decides to read verbatim from the Big Book of RPG Cliches. I find it surprising that meeting Calista garners one of the most cringe worthy, forced scenes in the game, but the farewell scene of the meeting sequence is one of the most moving and powerful scenes I've seen in an RPG for a long time. This is kind of the games problem from a story perspective, it is mostly good but occasionally a really bad scene appears with awful writing, the plot is mostly good even if it stumbles more than I would care for. It's been a fantastic game otherwise.

1. Xenoblade Chronicles - In this whole console generation, everyone has been trying to redefine the JRPG with their own twist, Kitase and Toriyama's rail shooter cinematic RPG FFXIII, Sega's third person shooter mixed SRPG Valkyrie Chronicles, and From Software's Demon's Souls to name a few. Xenoblade pretty much picks up where a game from last generation (FFXII) left off and goes forward with it. It's major focus was updating old fashioned RPG conventions (NPC, Sidequests, world/city design) while moving forward with some of the better ideas used to keep the aging genre relevant for a new generation. The game's world design and approach to making it feel alive is just amazing. The game's focus on actual gameplay makes it a joy to play as you're rewarded for trying new things and actually just exploring and fighting in the world. The story and premise are quite original and I feel the Heart-To-Hearts were an excellent game mechanic that helped flesh out the cast. The battle system is also pretty top notch and I love how each character even plays uniquely from one another. It has some good customization as well. I will echo its one flaw is that there are too many sidequests and most of them feel a bit samey, this is especially jarring for me now cause The Last Story actually implements these a little better with some gameplay variety but other than that Xenoblade is easily the best JRPH this console generation for me.

[Pike]

I think I might have to switch my GOTY from XCOM over to Crusader Kings 2, only because XCOM crashes for me every five minutes and I can hardly play it. Meanwhile I've dumped like a hundred hours into CK2 so far. Love that game.

[Aulayna]

Controversial one here but... Diablo 3.

[NinjaCoachZ]

Kid Icarus: Uprising for me. One of the most comprehensive, satisfying, and pure fun handheld gaming experiences I've ever had.

[Bolivar]

Controversial one here but... Diablo 3.

Damn I thought I was controversial bringing it in at number 8, but I think you might want to seriously run and hide for cover for that one.

[Wolf Kanno]

The further I get into The Last Story, the more I feel like it may actually deserve the top spot for me. Xenoblade may have a more well rounded and polished design, but I can't help but feel that The Last Story sort of invokes the feel of a JRPG more. It's gameplay is also just so damn good that I haven't actually been bothered by the game's mediocre difficulty.

I also feel that people kind of missed the point of the game's story and characters, it's often criticized for dabbling too much into overused RPG cliches but overall I feel the game's plot is a deconstruction and "take that!" to the genres cliches more than a serious attempt at using these tropes. I mean Zael may be an overly idealistic goody two shoe who acts through his heart more than his head, but he also happens to live in a world that is closer to the grim, morally gray worlds of FFTactics and Suikoden where most political figures have no problem exploiting people for their own gain and every one has an ulterior motive. So it's been very interesting watching Zael's ideals be twisted and turned around by the world he lives in. He's trying his best to do what's right and in turn he's actually getting farther and farther from his goals by doing so.

[Quindiana Jones]

So, whilst visiting the family for Christmas, I blitzed through Far Cry 3 in two overnight playthroughs. Damned impressive, that game. It's easily joint first with AC2 for my Favourite Ubisoft Game That I Can Remember At The Time. Highlight of the game? Setting up a giant takedown chain, using every available manoeuvre bar the From Below takedowns. Killed about a dozen guys in next to no time. Near the end of the game, there is a scene in which (SPOILER)Jason has a rage blackout and annihilates a large group of privateers. It's supposed to be this impressive testament to what a monster he is becoming. I wasn't too impressed, however, because I had already been that rage blackout.

You've got to hand it to Ubisoft; they have a knack for creating beautifully fluid and almost repulsively visceral combat that sets my loins a-jangling like I don't know what.

[Bolivar]

I'm incredibly relieved and overjoyed for you to hear that. The game's $38 on Steam right now, but I think I'm gonna hold off. If it's a solid 20, I'll get it.

[Aulayna]

Controversial one here but... Diablo 3.

Damn I thought I was controversial bringing it in at number 8, but I think you might want to seriously run and hide for cover for that one.

I think it's just the cool thing to do on the Internet to hate on Diablo 3 - it had problems yes (some of which got blown massively out of proportion) but overall it was a decent game. Sure the connection issues at the start were pretty troutty but once everything was up and running I really enjoyed it and it's been a regular go to game with some of my friends when we fancy doing some co-op demon slaying and always results in some good laughs. It's not without it's flaws for sure but Blizzard are one of the few companies that continually invest into their titles even after they've hit retail shelves.

It's also one of the few games that I've ever bothered sitting through and doing the repeat playthroughs on harder difficulties and completing Inferno before it got nerfed without using any cheese builds is one of my biggest gaming accomplishments.

The only other things that rival it for me are Borderlands 2 and XCOM as joint 2nd.

This time last year I would've said Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 would've been the top of my pickings but GW2 was a massive let down for me and I just get disappointed when I think of all the unused and wasted potential in that game.

My top 10 would be something like:

1 - Diablo 3
2 - Borderlands 2
3 - XCOM: Enemy Unknown
4 - The Secret World
5 - Final Fantasy XIII-2
6 - Assassin's Creed III
7 - SSX (would be higher if Mount Eddie was in at launch and the stupid Deadly Descents thing didn't exist at all)
8 - Dishonored
9 - Torchlight II
10 - Halo 4

I would put World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria on there but didn't rank it on the list as it's an expansion pack.